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Re: How Many Redszoners are prison inmates?

I work for a small business owner in the construction industry and he's willing to pretty much give anyone who asks for a job a chance. So we've had several guys come and go who've been in prison. Currently we have one and yesterday I asked him about this. He was in federal prison at Pendleton in Indiana. He said he had never heard of anyone getting internet access. And as far as books go, he said he (and a lot of other inmates) had a TV in his cell so he didn't care too much about trying to get a book and doesn't know how scarce they were.

Re: How Many Redszoners are prison inmates?

the Wabash Valley max has internet access but it is for legal research on their cases.... they acted like this was a law to allow them to research their appeals, etc. It had a small library too. The only people eligible for these things were those who had extended good behavior.

As for TVs, I think most are allowed to have them (if they aren't in the bad behavior section), but you have to buy them from the prison itself (jacked up prices).

WV also had an education program for college credits that they could use the internet for. It wasn't free, however. Pretty sure their computers were heavily monitored and blocked basically everything but the legal research program.

Re: How Many Redszoners are prison inmates?

I just got out in April, did 5 years in a local jail....as a Corrections Officer. We had some very, very limited internet access for inmates. It was filtered down to just a couple of particular sites, just for the purposes of learning basic skills for future purposes on the outside. Was attended bye only 4-5 inmates up to twice a week (one 1 hour class 1-2 wkly) and was closely monitored by an instructor. Obviously no known troublemakers were ever really granted permission to attend. They did have pencils but they were just long enough to use (about 2 inches long) with no erasers. Their toothbrushes were about as long as their pencils also, (nobody likes a shank). But they would roll up paper really tight (in the shape of a straw basically), harden it with toothpaste, deodorant and the like and insert their pencils to make them longer.

We also had quite a few books we distributed to inmates once a week. It was a 3 book a week max, rotation deal. I took in a dozen or so books a few times to add to the selection, it aggravated even me to see that selection at times. Yeah they are inmates but when you work with them everyday you learn to not bend over backwards for them but be reasonable. And too me it was reasonable to give them something to do other than them have nothing but time to plot something "else" to do.

We also had TV's but in our Pods (small dorms) we had only 1 per about 20-25 inmates maximum. We also had a Male Dormitory that had 60 men and 3 TV's. The same with the female inmates sans the large dorm. Our maximum security was single cells but only one TV that they would get out of their cells to watch. 1 guy at a time for 1 hour a day, the rest of the day they could watch it if they stood at their doors looking out of their 12x 4 windows.

I'll tell ya what it was a very interesting 5 years of my life. I'm glad I worked it as I gained a better appreciation for all involved but that said I hurt my back and that career is over. But I wouldn't wanna do it again anyways, it can be extremely stressful.

"You can't let praise or criticism get to you. It's a weakness to get caught up in either one."

Re: How Many Redszoners are prison inmates?

Originally Posted by SunDeck

Don't know about that, but one of the weirdest things about working in a public library is helping people locate relatives via state inmate locators. Just about every state has one on the internet; I probably help about half a dozen people look someone up each week.

These people's lives are so different than mine.

I work in a public library too and we get letters from inmates wanting all kinds of crap like addresses of strip clubs. And no, I haven't ever been to prison. Although, I was just released recently from a 28 day stay at a "medical facility."

Re: How Many Redszoners are prison inmates?

I have had clients in a number of jails and prisons in a number of states. None have ever said they internet access. Most have limited and espensive phone options. They can buy tv's but other than jobs paying 15 dollars a month they are dependant on money sent from home to buy the tv or toliteries.

Re: How Many Redszoners are prison inmates?

In the jails and prisons I've been in (as a visitor; I work with inmates upon their release) it's mostly crappy TVs (one per cell bloc--in common rooms), board games (primarily chess) and junky popular paperback fiction. And that's about it.

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